So, apparently Mitt Romney was interviewed by ABC's David Muir, to be aired tonight on ABC's World News Tonight. Muir pushed the ball forward a tiny bit and asked a couple of specific questions, as many of us here have been urging the media to do.
Via Mark Halperin (I know), here's a bit of the interview:
David Muir: You are here on what some have termed your world audition and Democrats, not surprisingly, continue to hammer you back home on taxes, you remain firm two years and two years only. So from what you have released and from what we have seen we know that there was one year when you paid about 13.9% tax rate. Can we clear this up by asking a simple yes or no question? Was there ever any year when you paid lower than 13.9%?
Mitt Romney: I haven’t calculated that. I’m happy to go back and look but my view is I’ve paid all the taxes required by law. From time to time I’ve been audited as happens I think to other citizens as well and the accounting firm which prepares my taxes has done a very thorough and complete job pay taxes as legally due. I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I’d think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires.
David Muir: You said you would go back and look, would you look for us?
Mitt Romney: I haven’t looked at the tax rate paid year by year. I know that I pay a very substantial amount of taxes and every year since the beginning of my career so far as I can recall.
So it seems there was some news made here. He's been audited? I'm sure he inserted that as a way to say "look, everything's legal. It's been audited." But did he have to pay any back taxes or penalties as a result of those audits?
What about the so-called "Swiss Bank Account amnesty" in 2009? Did he take that amnesty offer?
And notice how he brushes Muir off on the tax rate question. He never answers it. He fobs him off with "I'm happy to go back and look..." but when Muir follows up with "Would you look for us?"... Romney never answers.
Bottom line: This non-answer of Romney's (and the addition of "I've been audited...") only raises more questions that, hopefully, other reporters will follow up on.
Get out the popcorn!